Australia's Victorian Government has announced the refurbishment of the operating theatre at Daylesford Hospital.

The upgrade work aims to enhance healthcare services for the local community in the Daylesford and Macedon Ranges areas.

The upgrade was funded by an A$6.14m ($4.14m) grant from the Regional Health Infrastructure Fund (RHIF).

It mainly involved improvements to the patient waiting area, recovery and admission areas, as well as the sterile stock storage area and the Central Sterile Supply Department (CSSD) processing area.

The work also included replacing outdated patient monitoring and CSSD medical equipment.

This development is intended to assist the hospital's doctors and nurses in delivering more surgeries, reducing waiting times and providing treatment closer to patients' homes.

As the region's population is increasing, the new and improved facilities are expected to help the hospital meet the growing demand for surgical services.

On 20 August, Victoria Health Infrastructure Minister and Macedon Member Mary-Anne Thomas visited the site to inspect the newly refurbished operating theatre.

Thomas said: “With the completion of this multi-million-dollar upgrade at Daylesford Hospital, we’re ensuring that more locals across the region can get the care they need, closer to home now and into the future. 

“This upgrade will help our hardworking local doctors and nurses to get people off the surgical waiting list sooner while making delivering this care more efficient.”

The RHIF provides 'vital' funding to rural and regional health services in Victoria, allowing them to offer healthcare to local communities.

Since its establishment in 2016, the fund has received a total of A$790m in financing.

The latest investment adds to the more than A$13m of infrastructure funding that the state government has given to Central Highlands Rural Health.

This includes more than A$1.34m allocated through the Engineering Infrastructure Replacement Program for various essential facility upgrades.